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That would be me. Shortly before the festivities began, I shared this photo via IM with a few FTE members:
I know what you're gunna say. "But Tugly, my thermometer will do that in the sun too." Yup... but the sun was to the West and this was under the eave on the East side of the garage, next to the patio. My North-facing thermometer under the eave next to the green grass said 112. Stinky (in the shade of tall trees) said 112. I'm stickin' with that. The interesting coincidence is that's the number of air miles from the Canadian border - and it's June.
So... shortly after IMing that, the sky turned brown, the air smelled like fire, and the fire copter buzzed over our house. I went out front to look Northwest, and all I could see was a tall smoke storm. I've seen those before... here's a picture of the last one here:
I figure the moist spring that grew a lot of tall cheat grass and tumbleweeds was coming back to haunt us after our hot spell. I didn't know how bad it was until my wife called from work last night, filling me in on all the emergency radio traffic (she works nights at the jail). Their outdoor camera could see the explosions from the fruit packing plants with fork lifts and all those propane tanks. The big concern was the ammonia storage (for large refrigeration) and the Methyl Bromide at an AG chemical supply in the midst of the carnage.
Zoom to this morning, and I'm reviewing my home town burning up on videos available via web. On my drive to work, I took this picture:
You can all learn the stats on the news, but here's some stuff you won't find online: Nobody will go hungry... or even unemployed. The local fruit packing plants will absorb every worker that wants a job. The other plants have already worked out who will pack the fruit for the farmers that were slated to have their fruit packed at the lost facilities - the farmers will get their crop to market. The damaged/lost packing sheds are already making plans to rebuild. The lost homes had affluent owners - they are insured. Save for a lot of lost personal items and pictures, everybody is safe and sound - and they're gunna bounce back high and fast.
I'am glad to see it missed your part of town Rich. Your so right, it could have been much worse. I'll coming over to Cresent Bar to visit in-laws on our way to Montana in a few weeks. Hope it cools off to 100* lol.
06-29-2015, 07:50 PM
